Ammi majus

[Bideshi]

I started a white border about 3 years ago and am still fiddling with it. Because some of the chosen plants are slow to get going or yet to make full height (DA roses principally) I've been using annuals to fill the gaps. White cosmos and antirrhinum were great last year (hopeless this year).
Everybody has been going on for years about Ammi majus, and I particularly like umbellifers so I thought ammi were just the ticket. 1 metre according to general info,so middle of the border, right?
Except they're over 2metres and still ascending, or the ones that haven't collapsed and smothered everything yet. Not what I had in mind and I've already cut most down.
So how big do they get? Anybody been successful with them? How do you use them?

They didn’t give you Giant Hogweed by mistake?

I'd love to be allowed to grow giant hogweed. Madam Raven supplied these as plugs.
I think this might be down to the mild wet west of Scotland climate. A Piet Outdolf thing wouldn't do here as everything would grow to twelve feet then collapse in a great soggy mess.

Legally, you can grow Giant Hogweed on your own land, I believe. You can’t let it get out into the wild, and disposing of it is difficult.

My ammi have always been really tall. Five, six feet and up. They are fabulous in a bed but must be staked, every last one of them. I love them for being so delicate and floaty, but that is also their downfall.

I have always started ammi seeds in the greenhouse in the past. This year I did that as well as sowing direct just to see what would happen. I have been told that sowing the seeds in the bed would mean they did not flower until the next year but I thought that was bunk and I was right.

The direct sown seeds, though, have produced plants that are about half the height of the greenhouse ones. Happily I sowed them at the front of the bed so it has worked out fine. I may only direct sow next year because the staking of the very tall ones is such a pain. They often have to be re-staked after heavy winds, for instance, that make a mess of the beds. There has been quite a lot of that this summer!

Or it could be the direct sown ammi were short because of our cold spring and summer, and the module ones did not suffer the cold so much in the greenhouse. That is gardening. Very little is certain.